A true fall paddle

A friend from Puerto Rico was in town yesterday and remarked, "It was like Puerto Rico here Monday; today its Minnesota". A fairly violent line of thunderstorms came through and the 86F high on Monday turned into a 63F high yesterday. Which is excellent news in my book. I loathe hot weather. I went grouse hunting on Sunday with the VOR's dad and it looked like fall, smelled like fall, grouse were flushing (none were harmed in this particular trip however), but we were in our shirt sleeves and it was 85F. Glen, being the resourceful woodsman that he is, quickly converted his long sleeve shirt to short sleeves and we pressed on, sweating the whole time.



That should not be the case this weekend. Five of us are heading to Voyageur National Park, up on the Canadian border, for a 4 day paddle. Highs in the low 60's and lows possibly below freezing. I paddled there once before on one of our annual post Labor Day kayak trips and its a marvelous place. It is a multi use park and you can encounter house boats, fishermen, other kayakers, and lots of wildlife. This time of year the houseboats are pretty much gone and only the die hard fishermen are out on the big waters of Rainy, Namakan, Kabetogama, and Crane Lakes. Our fall group circumnavigated the Kabetogama Peninsula but nothing that ambitious is in store for this trip. We unsucessfully attempted to get rooms at the Kettle Falls Hotel for Saturday night and were told it was the last day they were open for the season. We will be stopping for a beer or two at the famous Tiltin' Hilton bar. The floor is warped beyond belief and the system used to level the pool table is pretty unique. Our hope is that the fall colors are peaking, the temps on the cool side, and that the snow holds off for another week or so at least.